Hey guys,

 

Just wanted to inform you that I am OK after yesterday's earthquake in South Taiwan.

We did not feel the tremor in Taipei and no damage occured North of Kaohsiung.

It is unfortunate that at least 2 people died and that lots of properties have been damaged, but

we have to be thankful that no tsunami has developed due to the quake!

 

So, once again, I'm fine.

 

LeTouriste

After a week of playing Secret Santa, I was busted by t. M who knew that I was her Angel. Her logic pointed to me because I am the only person who could have always given her big presents. I tried to fool her by having friends write in bad English or in Chinese and I even tried to use reverse psychology (You think you know who I am, think of your punishment!) with no success.

 

For my punishment I had to act as though I was waiting for the bus and that I had an urge to poo-poo! This was very funny for the teachers to watch. The best punishment was t. S who had to eat a banana in a sexy fashion. She was quite good at manipulating a banana with her mouth... I wonder were she got the experience??? The other ones were t.C who had to wear both a kid's uniform and a diaper. When the diaper punishment fell upon her, she was really mad!!! But both were hilarious to watch. Of the 12 teachers present only 3 identified their Secret Santas.

 

In total, this Christmas, I received lots of gifts.

I got 3 scarves, 2 glasses, 1 pair of gloves, 1 Beijing mascot, 1 Xmas pen, 1 box of chocolate, 1 bouquet, 1 body mist, 1 mug warmer, and countless cards some written by the kids. I never received so many things since I left home 10 years ago.

 

Merry Christmas to all and hope my cold will go away,

LeTouriste

OK, so after the Kindy Xmas party which finished around 10PM, I rushed into my jeans and red shirt and ran to the MRT station. I hooked up with a friend and we went to M's 25th bday party. The party was held in his friend's apartment. Wow! The friend is a department store manager and you could tell from the decoration and the size of the place that money was not a concern. There were 4 girls and 7 guys who showed up. 4 guys were foreigners and based on our Chinese levels, I thought I was the freshest arrival in Taiwan. I was wrong! D. is an English guy who arrived just 4 months ago and is now almost fully bilingual!!!!! I was shocked! There are three reasons for this. 1- he took Chinese classes 2- he is in a relation with a Taiwanese 3- he refuses to have Chinese people speak English to him. I guess that he is highly motivated to learn Mandarin, so he took the steps required to achieve this. Cheers, man!

 

There were two cakes, lots of alcohol and lots of Chinese spoken. I was tired and quite frozen in that apartment. Once, they maintained Chinese conversations, I really felt left out and quite uncomfortable. Furthermore, they began drinking all sorts of alcohol, so I was really out of the party by then.

 

Around 2:30AM, I had a taxi called and bailed out! Ouf! that was a tough one!

 

The bushiban Xmas party for kids was tough too because the kids were scared of Santa or were totally not interested. When I tried to get them to sing, they were really cold. Fortunately, after 3 Jingle Bells most kids were participating and they were ready to make gingerbread houses. This was really amusing to see how kids don't listen and react when things don't go well. After the houses, they watched a movie and I went to Chilies with the birthday boy and two friends from the party.

 

Sunday, I had plans to see two movies, but when I woke up I felt terrible. My head wanted to blow up and my chest was clogged and my nose was stuffed. I did not know, but that was the onset of my first Asian cold!

Hey guys,

 

I tell you more about my Christmas parties at a later date. Now I am down with multiple illnesses.

I feel worst than a crippled elder! My head wants to bust too!

 

Clean my room and sleep!

LeTouriste

Hello Guys,

 

My Christmas tree costume was not all that popular, but it did stick out a lot since I was the only teacher to be dress up. All the girls were beautifully dressed and two of them even hit my eye more than they usually do. Man was V hot in her blue dress! The kids found my costume amusing and they enjoyed poking the ornaments. There was a major turn out for the event and I even got the chance to meet some former students whose brothers and sisters are still in kindy.

 

The three songs were absolutely phenomenal. The kids were into it. They were singing and dancing extremely well. The parents seemed to be very pleased. It was quite funny to see me dance because the ornaments tied to my arms were flying and banging together all the time. After the songs, the kids were separated in groups to attend 4 stations. Two were games and two were DIY candy houses and DIY Santa statue. I was placed with S at the Santa station. My job was to give out the material and put names. I was not to provide help in making the Santa. This resulted in kids making just about anything that could possibly resemble a Santa. They were pretty creative because very few looked like the model, but all the statues looked beautiful. It was funny to see the interaction between parents and students and then correlate that relation to how they related with classmates.

 

Ex.: B is a spoiled brat. She came to the Santa making with her mom and younger brother. Mom made everything because as soon as B got glue on her hands, she stopped helping and concentrated on peeling the glue off. When her mom stood up to ask for more material, the younger brother began crying loudly because he was sure that his mom was leaving him. The mom was still within visual range, but that was beyond his comfort zone. Personally, I think the parents' spoiling of these kids is not good, although they may turn out to be great person later on,  right now they are real pains.

 

At 20:40, I ran away to slip into my Santa costume. I looked stunning! As I was changing the Chinese staff was gathering the kids and got them to sing a song that was not practiced. That did not go too well, but then they started calling for Santa. At this point, my heart started rushing. I felt the pressure building and as this was happening, I really slipped into my character. My eye sight narrowed (tunnel effect caused by stress) and my voice changed. I was now Santa. I can imagine how thrilling it must be for artists to wait behind the curtains hearing 100 000s of fans cheering their names. When the curtain was pushed, I walked in and the kids all cheered and the cameras were flashing. The kids got up and raced towards me. All wanted to touch Santa. Some recognized me and were spoiling some of the fun. I nonetheless made my way to the door and handed out candy outside. This point was boring because the kids were pushing and were trying to get seconds instead of leaving. I also had parents dig into the bag to give out candy instead of me. Get a life mom! Take one candy and get your kid out of my way. I had a little fright when P disappeared in the mass of kids. No one was stepping on him. He managed to crawl between people's legs and get to his mom safely. This kid will always surprise me!

 

That was it for that night. Clean up and pictures with all the hot teachers that I work with. I hope that I will get some pics so that I can show them to you guys.

 

More to come,

LeTouriste

Sorry for the delay, I am busy with work. We are getting the kids ready for the Christmas parties and I just learned that my Chinese teacher's birthday is this Friday. Hence, I have to find a gift for him and go to his party in addition to dining with him and other friends on Saturday. Good news, however, I do go to sleep earlier than before. On the other hand, I have gained a lot of weight. I realized how fat, I have become when I tried a stretch shirt (that I will use for my Christmas costume). Yeah, my belly was well rounded under the shirt. Disgusting! I need to do something quickly.

 

So, my stinky tofu weekend began on Saturday. A teacher friend and I headed out to our kids' speech competition. I trained the four kids representing our school. Of the 4, I thought that one really had the chance of moving on. All four delivered a solid speech, but all four had flaws that I had not been able to correct. Hence, while competing against 37 other students, none of mine moved to the next level. I was just as disappointed as the kids. I even felt that the judges had been unfair and that the competition had been set up. Of the 6 winners, only 3 were remarkable, the other 3, I didn't remember their speeches.

 

The juicy incident that happened at the competition is when the school's owner came up to me with a large grin. She asked me if the girl accompanying me was my girlfriend. The owner did not seem to realize who the girl was. I replied that the girl in question was a teacher from the school where I teach. Hence, she "belongs" to the owner. When I told her that, the owner was surprised that she did not recognize one of her own employees! I was shocked, that teacher has been working there for 18 months, but has gone unnoticed by the higher direction!

 

Anyway, after the competition and the cheering up of crying students, we headed out to ShenKeng to try the most famous stinky tofu in all of Taiwan. As soon as we got off the taxi, I could smell the overpowering aroma of stinky tofu. This was surprising, but not totally unpleasant. We walked down the narrow alley to see all that was offered. Things ranged from stinky tofu to deserts, and tea to Chinese medicine, and cheap toys to live caged animals! At the end, we turned around and hit the first stinky tofu shop.

 

This traditional Chinese restaurant served a cheap tofu, which hardly smelled and was not spicy. In the soup, there was nothing aside from tofu. The taste was OK, but nothing exceptional. I guess, this was expected for the NT$50 price.

The second shop was wicked because of its decoration. The chairs were bench like those seen in kung fu movies. The walls were covered with antiques used in the countryside, such as oil lamps and well cups. This was pretty cool and the tofu soup was delicious. It had a strong smell and was very spicy. The soup also contained pig gut, pig blood and kim chi. This soup cost us NT$80. The tofu was much tastier.

The last tofu shop was actually the second grilled tofu vendor at the entrance. This tofu was not spicy, it was covered with BBQ sauce. This made it quite disappointing for me who likes spicy stuff (to a reasonable limit!!!)

 

At this point, my mouth was on fire and a few hours later, my stomach would be on fire too. We walked around to find the best deserts. We made a stop for black sugar cake which is analogous to our fruit salad cake with the exception that Taiwanese don't put fruit inside. Hence, it feels dry and sweet. Next, we stopped for some red bean cake (not very tasty) and more moidjhee. The deserts here were not all that good. I guess that is because none of them were really sweet.

 

That was my outing to ShenKeng. It was cool, but it was not necessary to go there to enjoy stink tofu. I feel that good stinky tofu can also be found in areas closer to my place. I had to buy a wool jacket because I was freezing. My next purchase will be a hat and gloves for my New Year's trip to Tainan.

 

Cheers all,

LeTouriste

So guys here are the pics of my new and old glasses. Tell me which one you prefer.

 

Cheers,

LeTouriste

 

Funny, one pair of glasses is from the CHA*CHA brand!

Today, the secretary at kindy ran into my classroom and told me to get ready. My Chinese teacher walked out to see what was causing the disturbance. Then at one point, there was a concerted reaction between three people to hide my escape. Quickly I went to the bathroom and opened the window. I was unsure as to what was going on, so my other Chinese teacher went to ask. She came back running, so I jumped out the window. And walked in the rain to the nearest 7/11. The other foreigner, who had fleed before me, joined me there. I drank a Coke as we chatted about work and our Secret Santas. We were also checking the two ladies in the school who were causing such a commotion. They seemed like ordinary people, but we could not figure out who they were. After a solid 15 minutes, they left and we were called back... to enter from the back door.

 

I quickly went to see the director and informed myself of whom they were. These ladies were from the tax services. They wanted to count the number of teachers to confirm that the same number of heads paid taxes. Ironically, we pay taxes, but we are not in the head count because foreigners aren't allowed to teach English in Taiwan. Anyway, that was my scary moment of the day.

 

The happy moment came during the second period of my bushiban class. Three new girls showed up with the intention of observing me. If they enjoyed the class, they would consider joining... if their parents weren't traumatized by the cost of learning in that school. After an hour of monkeying around and getting the kids to learn and giggle, ALL three girls joined and paid up front. That got the manager ecstatic! In all my recruiting sessions, I have recruited over 13 kids. Only once did the open house fail to recruit a majority of kids, but the reason was lack of suitable time slots. I guess, that this will place me in the graces of my manager for another week or two! These girls now bring my class to a total of 12 kids, hence my class is now profitable to the bushiban! All my classes are profitable!

 

I am happy and so is everybody!

LeTouriste

I forgot to add this crispy episode which happened last weekend, just after getting my ear unwaxed.

I noticed many young and old people with large jars of bubble gum and Santa hats. They all had wide grins and

were offering the gum to everyone. The lady who offered the gum to my bus line was an old lady in her 60s who offered me, not only gum,

but a huge smile! Then she said something in Chinese which I could absolutely not put together. So, I called for help. The translation was,

"Jesus loves you!" Ha! Ha! I was caught by one of those religious groups in Taiwan. I smiled back and the lady moved along. By curiousity, I checked out the gum. All the labels are in English and the product was made in Mexico. The brand name is quite unusual: Now And Later.

 

I don't believe this is a product available in stores. I am almost certain that this church must have had the candy made and delivered to them.

Otherwise, why would anyone call their gum Now and Later? A church could definitely use this slogan to mean that Jesus loves you now (If you are ready to love Him) and Jesus will also love you later (If it takes you longer to find the path to Him).

 

Well, in my case it is going to be LATER because I am totally not interested in religion. I respect others wo practice it, but I avoid those who are biased by it and those who preach it. Hence, I did not go on a second date with one of the most beautiful girls that I had met in Taiwan, because on our first date, she took me to church!!!! Man, was I in for a surprise when she took me there!

 

The other news that I forgot was the fact that I bought new glasses. 2 pairs for less than one cheap pair in Canada (you'll see the pics tomorrow, since I'll pick them up tonight) I also bought a new pair of Caterpillar shoes, with a 65% discount from the price that I had paid for

an identical pair in Canada. I love shopping in Asia!

At Shilin Night Market, there is an interesting kiosk which had caught my attention on my first visit there.

 

This stand offers a particular cleansing service. People there are very calm as they wait for candles to burn in

their ears and the wax to collect in huge peanut butter jars. Well, from my prespective, that's what this stand looks like.

However, it is quite different.

 

The stand offers to clean your ears, hence remove that nasty orange wax from clogging your ear drums. I was curious, so I tried it.

The man informed me that the procedure costs NT$390 for both ears and takes about 7 min/ear. I've had other first time experiences at

much higher prices, so I tried.

 

The guy gets you to sit on a stool and lay your head on a big square pillow. He then assembles the mount which will hold the container and the hollow candle in my ear. Installing the candle into my ear was sligthly uncomfortable, but not painful. Then he rubs some heating oil on the neck and by the ear. That leaves a buring sensation like rubbing BENGAY on your neck. Then he lights the candle and leaves. Never did I hear the buring candle or feel the heat, except when the guy is just about to remove it and there is about 5 cm of candle left. Then I did hear the crackling fire.

 

The man then opens the candle to reveal the amount of wax removed and diagnose you with any health problems. I was OK because my wax was of a yellow color and was found in little quantity.

 

Apparently removing ear wax can reduce headaches and also reduce the blood pressure. Cool things to know, but I did not notice any of those effects on me. I found this procedure cool and will gladly return in 6 months or a year. The real inconvenience is that we can't rest our arms on the table, thus the weight of our upper body lies on our neck.

 

Here are some pictures,

LeTouriste

 

I got a terrible news last night. One of my friends was involved in a major road accident.

She has been in the hospital for two days now and there is no talk of releasing her anytime soon. She is, fortunately,

not in a life and death situation, but she is in critical condition.

 

I was not told the details of the scooter accident. All I know is that her head is in bad bad shape.

 

Dear J,

 

My thoughts are with you.

May you please heal well and heal quickly.

Your friends are all with you during this bad situation.

 

I will try to visit her in the hospital, if that is possible. Right now, I can only hope for the best.

 

Gloomy news for a pre-Xmas post,

LeTouriste

After work, I rushed to Taipei city to hook up with X and her boyf. They were at BLISS somewhere in DAAN. This pub is owned by a dutch guy, so it is quite appropriate that a TV crew for the Travel and Living Channel film the life of Dutch people in Taiwan. My friend's boyf was chosen as the dutch guy going around Taipei with the TV host who is also a cook.

 

When I arrived there around 10PM, the cook was shooting a food commercial with about 15 Dutch people enjoying a dutch meal behind him. This was funny because the configuration of the pub was totally changed since the last time I had been there. After the commercial, the pub's band, with the owner as the lead singer, played Ziggy Stardust from David Bowie. This is the second time that I hear the band and its also the second time they play Bowie. I guess its the singer's favorite. They were quite good, but having a cameraman in their face made things a bit more challenging for the band.

 

When I left around 11, the TV crew was still getting shots of the people dancing to the band while the cook was faking playing the guitar. The funny thing about this cook is that he seems to have no teeth. His mouth is constantly opened as though he was always stunned or amused, but never have I seen his teeth.

 

It was great fun, but pubs aren't really my kind of place especially when they are allowed to smoke in the pubs.

 

Cheers,

LeTouriste

I learned a lesson the hard way today.

 

Remember that I have been really tired lately. That's because I help coach students for a speech contest. People have been telling me different stories about what type of pay I would be getting. Some were saying that it would be teaching pay, others said office pay, others said that I would get a stipend and others said that I would be getting nothing at all. I have a friend in the same company who has been working on this contest for over a month. I made the assumption that to invest so much time, she would have to be rewarded. So I sent an email to Main office asking them what was the policy versus our salary during this coaching process. I thought this was a simple question. What is the policy?

 

Now, what do you expect the answer to be? Our company has been running for over 20 years, so here is our policy regarding this issue. Right?

No! The answer was: Sorry, we don't have a policy for this. It is up to your managers to decide!

This answer was surprising given the company's history. Hasn't anyone thought of writing the rules down? Who is running this show?

This also meant that I would not be paid. Ok, I was fine with the answer. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THAT THE MAIN OFFICE DUDE decided to forward my email and his answer to two other guys. One of whom is directly over me in the chain of command. That's where a simple question becomes a big mess.

 

This person contacted my director and my manager and the main Chinese teacher and informed them that I had complained to Main Office. They started debating if I should be paid or not, they started feeling upset that I would do such a thing. Some got into trouble for delivering wrong information. So, yesterday there was a lot of hard feelings. The main Chinese teacher, the manager and the director all came over, apologized and thanked me for my work. This was not cool because this was extra work and in a way they all lost face to me. This is never good for relationships with Chinese people.

 

Moral of the story, if you shut up everyone will be happy. That goes for me asking questions and for main office monkeys ccing other people than the one sending the email.

 

I hope my efforts to make it up to those three Chinese employees and friends will allow this situation to disappear quickly.

 

LeTouriste

Hey guys,

 

It was my friend L's bday on Monday! No, I did not forget it.

In fact, I had planned a little surprise for her. I went to a Chinese website that offers to deliver flowers

to people in China. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I still decided to give it a try.

I ordered a bouquet which included lilies, her favorite flowers. When it comes to paying, they transfer you to Paypal.

I thought this was funny, but at least, I knew that Paypal would charge me fairly for the transaction.

 

Finally, on Monday afternoon, the Shanghai florist delivered the bouquet to her. Here are some pictures of the bouquet which

she received. I think it is pretty nice! What do you think?

 

Cheers, LeTouriste

 

So the weather descended below the 20 degree mark today. That is not cold, but the wind was so strong that it felt much colder than that, especially when I was riding the scooter to my student's house. I wanted to buy a new coat, but the one I had spotted was really cheaply made, so I decided to wear two of my old coats to block the wind and the coldness.

 

I can't remember if I wrote a blog on this, but Taiwanese want to bid for the Olympics of 2020! I thought this to be another crazy idea that Taiwanese seem to throw out from time to time. I was laughing because I thought that Taiwan was not part of the Olympics. But, I was really surprised to learn the opposite was true. Taiwan's team is known as the Taipei Chinese. The characters used for Chinese means ROC, but every other team that call this team will use characters for Chinese that mean PRC. Secondly, instead of using their full greek name, this team inverts their name. So, instead of walking behind Team China (K...T...) they walk under T...K... In recent Olympics they pulled a respectable 5 medals. Surprise, surprise!

 

Knowing that Taiwan has an Olympic team, let's check their bid. They say that they need to improve most of their sports infrastructure and roads by 2013. They also want people to modify their behavior by 2010. If the people's behavior regarding awful driving manners and general dirtiness, the directors won't submit a bid. In the event that the behavior is modified then a bid will be submitted and an answer will be obtained in 2013. Is this a waste of money? Probably, but if the behavior is changed Taiwan could actually become a great place to live in compared to other major asian counterparts. Can you imagine Taipei were scooters actually respect the driving code? Can you imagine a Taipei with luxious gardens and colorful buildings? Can you imagine a Taipei were beat down neighborhoods and ugly concrete highways are torn down and replaced with modern buildings or groundlevel roads? I personally can't imagine that happening, but for some reason Taiwan does not seem to care about the bottom line of their budget. If money really isn't an issue and nothing else is more important, then why not? Revitalizing Taipei isn't a bad idea.

 

Cheers,

LeTouriste

AHHHH Gross!

 

I was quietly eating my broccoli. I have to tell you that I cook my broccoli in a little oven for 5 minutes to allow cheese to melt. After that I eat it. Of course, I wash the whole thing. Nonetheless, as I was eating I noticed something green moving. It was gross because that moving thing was a caterpillar.

Can you imagine that poor thing survived the 5 minutes of cooking and then was almost eaten.

 

Man, I think I need to look more attentively at my fruit and vegetables. At least, it's better to find a full caterpillar than to find half of one.

 

Cheers,

LeTouriste

What is happening with me? I don't really know. I don't sleep well and I have a lot of work. Thus, I wake up in the morning exhausted. I pack back the Coke and now the RedBull to try to keep moving. Now, the big work is over because the kids are doing their speeches tomorrow afternoon. Are any of them ready? Maybe 2 or 3 amongst the 10 kids that were thrown at me. Did I help them? I made sure their speeches were long enough and I tried to improve their pronounciation, but did it work? Not for most because I only saw them once or twice and they were never ready each time I saw them. I wish them the best of luck.

 

Today, I snapped at my oldest students. They were not listening to me and they were speaking Chinese. So, I told them to "Shut up!" and put their heads on their desks. All except one were quite and remorseful. So I took that girl to the front of the class and asked her to speak English. Seeing that she was not able, I turned back to the kids and tried to make them realize that they sucked although they have been studying in that school for 2 years. Now, this class will have a new Chinese teacher who is extremely severe, so the kids will have to behave. Secondly, I'll be doubling up the pressure on the homework part. This should either get them learning English well or leaving the school because of their teachers' stubborness. Either way, I just hope that I don't experience another crappy day like I experienced in that class.

 

Cheers,

LeTouriste